Fifth Session: 4th April

I decided to take a trip to One Tree Hill with my flatmate... On the Saturday of the Easter weekend which was probably a bad day to choose... there was the fair going on at Alexandra Park which meant Balmoral/Greenlane Roads were busy!

Oh, excuse the pink rope, if only I had known...
So you could understand why I was quite scared initially to ride on Balmoral/Greenlane. The designated cycle paths definitely made me feel better though - Remember the first entry when I said I was NEVER going to ride on those since they're so narrow! But I realise it's better than nothing. In a sense it is sufficient width... or at least you feel like you, being a cyclist, actually belong somewhere in the public space. For most of my sessions of cycling I feel like I don't belong anywhere, and am either intruding on pedestrian paths, or car space.

One thing I noticed while we were cycling (which I'm not sure whether it's noticeable in the video) was that I had to pedal about twice as much as Linda (my flatmate) to at least even get up to speed due to the smaller size of the wheels on my bike. Oh well... I guess that's more exercise for me!
Here's a snippet of when we get up to the traffic lights... it feels so glorious to move to the front of the line past all those cars!...

I noticed that I did that swervey thing again... probably because I tried to go too fast to get through the traffic lights...

We came to One Tree Hill to get an ice cream and water, and...

came across another fold up bike. Yay a companion!

Here's the three of our bikes together:

I couldn't really identify who's bike the blue one was so didn't get a chance to ask them about cycling unfortunately.
The cycling session was good. Usually takes me about half an hour to walk to One Tree Hill, but cycling allowed us to take about an hour all up to get there, have refreshments, and get back. I didn't end up finding the main road too scary... apart from going back home and having to go uphill. I was afraid of going too slow so just walked that length.

Consideration for bikes in the design of buildings

Something I would like to add which I experienced after my fourth ride around Auckland. Here you see a little video of me having difficulty bringing the bicycle back into the house. I didn't want to open the entire garage door just to wheel my bike in, but going through the front door was a bit of a pain, having to lift the machine up the step into the lobby, and the door wasn't very big for the bike to fit through.

What if we just had some sort of bike door within the garage door? Then I wouldn't need to worry about opening the whole darn thing. It's these little things too that come to increased use of the bike. If we park our cars smoothly into the house, why shouldn't it be the same for the bike?

Introducing my flatmate's bike

This is my flatmate's bike. I rode it the other day because I was afraid the wheels of mine were getting a bit flat. It definitely felt different with the bigger wheels (meaning it's not as flexible to turn) and that allowed me to pedal less to go the same distance as I would on my fold up bike. The handlebars were something I had to get used to since they came back at an angle rather than going straight out to the side, and the saddle was a bit narrower at the front which gave me memories of when I would hop off the bike and feel sore for the rest of the day (my fold-up felt so comfortable, I never had a problem after I got off it).

One other very noticeable thing was that the rear wheel brakes when you press backwards on the pedal which means you can't just reverse the pedals to the position you want when you're about to push off from the kerb... I found that incredibly inconvenient... Wonder how many other bikes brake like that..

It's a pretty basic bicycle - no fenders really, fixed gear, and the basket is detachable.

Fourth session: 2nd April

Sorry for the lack of update! The blog's been a bit quiet, but I have been out on a few sessions of cycling! This time I tried to take the same route as last time. Funnily enough, it was so hard to just get out there and ride I had to convince myself that it will only take half an hour (I had to be somewhere at a certain time so I was starting to think it was getting too late to go). It was such a good day I couldn't just let it slip by and not take advantage of the good weather!

This time I took my flatmate's bike because the wheels of mine felt slightly flat. She has a second-hand full-size bike and you could feel the difference! For one thing it was more difficult to turn, with the big wheels, but it also meant that I didn't need to pedal as much to get moving. Going up the hills felt slightly easier though gears are most ideal. The saddle was different (a bit less comfortable than mine) and handle bars jutted out on an angle instead of mine sideways so ergonomics and design really make a different fit! The bike also has "reverse locking" or whatever it's called, where you can brake the rear wheels by pushing the pedal backwards. I'm not exactly sure how it works and how common it is, but I found it rather difficult to work with - every time I wanted to get back on the road after stopping I couldn't just wind the pedals backwards to get into the right position to push off.. which wasted a lot of time, energy and face.

So I mentioned I tried to take the same route as last time, turns out I made a wrong turn and ended up going down a different road which led me to explore a few places. The traffic this time was a lot busier than last time, despite it still being around 11am on a weekday. Perhaps it's because it was the day before public holiday (Easter) which made everyone get ready on that day? I don't know. I went through all the smaller roads and tried to take the flatter ones. It was a 40min ride but it sure included a lot of hills!

Below is a rather draft map of where I went. I planned to take the same route down and go all the way down Valley Road and end up at the Esplanade where Mt Eden Cycles is, but I took the following route instead.

I stopped at the end of a lot of roads because, for example, they ended at the intersection with a busy road (Dominion Road) or they were just too hilly.

I ended up going down this cul-de-sac and finding a really neat little sneakish pathway just for bikes! I decided I'll try ride through that place next time. It's these little things that I love about the nature of a small machine as the bicycle - that you can just cut your way around the city! Shortcuts... I love it.

I found that by cycling in a place I was barely familiar with, with small identical roads making the whole network a maze, I made the roundabout a sort of landmark which I could navigate myself around. Since it was the first intersection I came across after getting off Mt Eden Road, that's the only way I knew how to get back (I could look at and use other streets to get back too, but most of them are too steep...)

I noticed later, on my way to uni, there was a girl wearing her work clothes that came out of Pencarrow Ave and took the same bus as me to the Esplanade. The distance is only 2km, so why didn't she just take a bike down to work and save the money? Two things immediately sprang to mind. Apart from the assumption that she doesn't own a bike, perhaps it's just the lacking mainstream cycle culture here in Auckland - there's  no consideration of taking your bike to go around Auckland. The other excuse I can think of is the hill you would have to tackle on the way back...

Cycling Habits

Okay, a break from my rantings and musings over my amateur experience of riding a bicycle. Yet, I’ve been considering a few more things recently.

As one who has only just recently started cycling, I’ve noticed a few things in this area:

1. I tend to cycle only on the day that I notice the sun is out. That means I’m very likely not to go cycling when it’s even cloudy, for fear of it raining afterwards.
2. I’ve been avoiding hilly areas - note the first trip I made: I specifically drove to Puriri Dr, where it’s completely flat. When I start to approach even a downhill slope I’m weary of taking that route, because I think of having to tackle the upward slope on the way back - and that puts me off. I've considered cycling down towards Dominion Rd, but always think about how I'd have to come back up that horrendous hill.
3. I’m keeping to small streets. Don’t get me wrong, I would like to try all different streets but big streets intimidate me with their busyness, and are another limitation to me going somewhere by bike. It doesn’t help that I live at the corner of two main streets, but that just leads me to cycle at the weirdest times just to avoid traffic (e.g. 7:30am on a Sunday).
4. To add on to the previous point, I’m always scared of being in the way and tail-gated by cars or, even worse, buses. That would probably put me off cycling for ever. That, or being wedged in between a parked car with the door open and another, moving, car.

These points may be helpful to refer to when it comes to determining the factors that prevent people from (wanting to) cycling in Auckland...

Third Session

It’s very interesting. I went for my third bike ride on Wednesday morning - at around 10am. I say it’s interesting because I found that I had to really make an effort to get myself out of the house and go bike riding. I’m not sure if it’s because I somehow feel a bit embarrassed with the bike I have (not the usual full frame with smaller wheels than most), or that I’m just a bit lazy.. or that I still am not that much into cycling (since I’m not very good at it yet) and I don’t want others to see how much I suck. But I’ve felt that phenomenon the last few times, I can’t deny it. I really need to make an effort to go out cycling, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

This time, I started from Mt Eden road and found it much easier to start riding (the first two times I walked and waited for quite a while before I actually hopped on my bike). I basically flew past the people waiting at the bus stop (where I normally catch my bus too) and it felt great riding along so freely. 

There were a lot more cars (even trucks too!) than the other times I cycled, but by now I’m more comfortable to ride on the road, and it felt good to have the bus lane to ride in as cars are about to pass, though at the same time I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to be there. I really see the importance of cars allowing 1.5m clearance from cyclists - it may not feel a lot from the car’s point of view (disregarding road widths), but you can feel it on a bicycle! 

This is a road I go along extremely often so I was really surprised with how fast it took me to get to the shops (Mount Eden village). Usually it’s almost 15 mins walk but cycling took me about 3 minutes! Maybe next time I go to the shops I’ll just bike there!

I turned down Grange St because it had a road coming off it (Ashton Road) that was shown on Google Maps to be a “bicycle friendly road”. As you can see in the video below, my bicycle started going a bit too fast downhill and I couldn’t help but sway left and right the faster it got. It felt kinda cool, but at the same time a bit scary because it was almost getting out of control. I don’t know why going too fast would make the bike sway. Perhaps it’s the small wheels, I don’t know. I feel there really is a limit in the speed the bicycle can go due to wheels. (Apologies for the poor video… The iPod wasn’t fixed too well this time so documentation was a bit bumpier!)

I can see how Ashton road’s considered a “bicycle-friendly” road - the image below shows there’s the speed bump for the cars, and a little gap especially for the bike. It’s separated, even though it’s quite narrow, but even a little gesture like that makes me appreciate that the cyclist has been thought about, and I guess it encourages me to keep cycling.

 Coming up to Valley road, I was glad to see such signs as these - not only for pedestrians, but also bikes. Apparently it’s quite busy/dangerous here because cars coming from Ashton Rd onto Valley Rd have to stop. Hence you can see an island to the right of the picture.

 Valley Rd onto Mt Eden Rd is a bit of an uphill so I walked my bicycle up instead. I thought to ride it down Mount Eden again (going downhill) back to my house but when I got up to the T-junction the cars put me off again (same instance as when I got out to Greenlane from Puriri Drive). I didn’t want to even think of turning right onto a road where parked cars take up the whole left lane, meaning that cars or buses driving will need to merge into the right lane because space is so tight.

i ended up turning around to go down the other end of Valley Rd, after realising that there was an actual share bike/footpath by seeing this sign finally… 

 So riding on the footpath was great. It made me feel a lot better than when I was riding on the road because I knew this path was specifically for bikes.However. Along the way there were poles that were planted right in the middle of the cycle-half of the path… which makes me reconsider whether they’ve actually made consideration to the cyclists. Surely pedestrians would have a much easier job avoiding the poles than cyclists going at three or four times their speed.

Another aspect that frustrates me is the discontinuity of cycle lanes. They only last for a few short kilometres so you’re always having to keep stopping and starting. It really makes me think that very little, if any, consideration is given to cyclists in the city. It’s like they’re a last group of commuters to take into consideration, and they’re provided with whatever space is left over, just because. No wonder there’s not a huge cycling culture here in Auckland. With cyclists always having to stop and start due to disconnected lanes, and never knowing where they are meant to be riding on the road, it makes it even harder to start.

You can see my confusion in the video below at about 1:50 while I ponder what I could do next, after enjoying that very short ride in my own lane… and trust me - I’ve had this experience quite a few times on this one trip today.

The next issue is going back through Ashton Rd. I came back to that speed bump to find out that they don’t have a lane for me and my bike to go through!

See the cars on the right, that made me go on the footpath in order to not stop cycling. Times like these I feel like I’m breaking the law (but you are not allowed to cycle on footpaths right?). By this time I was much better at signalling! Better signaling left than right at the moment, but it’s an improvement!

The last leg is riding along Mt Eden road to go back home. I followed the roads I went in order to avoid the busy shops, and the ride was smooth enough. I was always scared of buses coming up from behind me (as someone who takes the bus regularly, I’ve seen how some tail-gate poor cyclists and that freaks me out) but luckily none did. I decided to not upload that video because the iPod unfortunately was too badly connected that it just shook too much. 

One last thing I’d like to add - this experience did make me think of a reading I’ve been doing recently. The book is called “Cycle Space” by Steven Fleming. He ‘argues’ that cyclists create their own “cycle space” in their mind within the city, whether it’s based on their perceptions, subcultures and codes of behaviour. As they cycle through the city, they map out their own portrait of it. They have their own landmarks they refer to and main roads that (can be ones) only they know about. I’ve started to understand what he’s talking about. I had no idea Valley Road had a shared bike/footpath and it was a pleasant discovery. And these (humble) discoveries leave you a very deep impression of parts of the city.

Second Session

My second session of riding was on the following Sunday morning at about 7:30am. It was good weather and I knew there weren’t going to be a lot of cars at the major intersections (where I live)! So I took the opportunity to take it to the road.

It’s interesting. I saw a bicyclist turning into a road before me (you see his shadow against the fence first). The cycle culture’s virtually non-existent in New Zealand, Auckland in particular, that whenever I see someone cycling (now that I’ve started to pay attention to them) I get excited. Maybe it’s just a “good on them” feeling, but anyway.

I’m not sure how I feel about speed bumps. They’re not an obstacle, probably adds something to the bike ride, but it definitely would be better if they’re lower (I understand they’re primarily for cars).

I practiced signalling a few times -  you can notice the moments here and here. My bike sways terribly as I momentarily lose and regain my balance. I haven’t been used to riding with one hand so I got thrown off balance a few times - that’s one area I need a lot more practice on!

There were minor hills, but you can tell how much they had an impact on my riding still. You can hear the revolutions of the wheel and hear the difference in speed when going downhill as opposed to uphill. So they may feel slight in the car, but it’s a different story on bike!

As you get up to Mt Eden Road there’s noticeably marked lanes for the cars and buses, but none provided for bikes. The parked cars don’t help at all either and as a cyclist you’d have to turn your head and make sure there are no cars coming from behind… Well in my case I slowed down so they would pass me first. There was enough space for the car to pass me by going into the median strip, but I didn’t want to risk anything, so I slowed down behind the car and let them pass.

I don’t know how to make the links pop up on the blog instead of Youtube, but hope it gives the idea..

It was a really quick ride. Mount Eden is a hilly area so I didn’t really want to go out too far in case it took too long to get back - there’s always a consciousness of having to climb the hill after going down it earlier, which puts me off going down the hill in the first place.. which is something to consider.

First Riding Session

So! I finally got myself onto the road and cycle in Auckland for the first time! Haha not really because it was in Cornwall Park. But anyway. Good first time experience!

Ironically though, I admit that I had to drive to the park. Just like how they mentioned in the Transport Blog. But i figured that if i were to begin by cycling on the road alongside a number of cars, I will never start.

I wanted to cycle on Puriri Drive:

 It was a very nice experience: I felt the breeze on my face, and really connected with the surrounding environment I was in. I rode past a man on the footpath and could almost say “hi” to him. It was extremely different to when I was driving here. When driving, you focus on the road, the traffic lights, your speed… but when you’re cycling, yes you focus on the road, but you also cannot help but notice the air around you, what people around you are doing. You can hear the kids in the school playing out on the field. You’re aware of what’s around you, not only visually, but also because you can hear, feel and smell it.

I got off here (picture below) and walked to the traffic lights. Not sure if it’s because the road started splitting into more lanes so I was afraid of taking up car space for those that wanted to turn left (there were barely any cars but I still considered it).

The video below shows the contrast of the small road to the busy road. I came out on Greenlane West and you can see the cars just zooming past. Although there’s a marked bike lane, it’s so narrow I would never want to ride on that… 

The trail at One Tree Hill below. Nice paved path, not as smooth as Puriri Dr so it was a slightly different experience of riding. The path was windy but quite flat, and it was narrow enough - 1m wide or less. There were a lot more pedestrians, but I’m not as scared of them as I was when riding at Mission Bay two years ago. I still feel like I need a lot of space to pass people though… I happened to pass a man pushing a pram and the road felt so narrow for the two of us I had to get off the path and pass him by riding on the grass.

On the way back to Puriri Drive, this is a snapshot of me turning left to avoid having to pass this pedestrian. Riding a bike is quite intuitive; you lean left and then you turn left.

 Here’s a little video of me riding the path. Bicycling sure is a balancing act and I know I’m not good at it! So forgive me for the shakiness of the video. We’ll see how it improves with time..

Back on Puriri Drive, this woman and girl were crossing the road. I think they slowed down to let me pass but I wasn’t confident to ride between the two of them and the car. I ended up slowly down, almost to a stop, to let them know to keep walking. I felt like I could still hurt them, riding on my bike, even though it wouldn’t be so bad if I hit them by driving a car… but this may explain why cyclists aren’t allowed to ride on the footpath? Though I don’t see why they can just stop of pedestrians in cases like these. They have so much more control and not so much inertia because they’re not as heavy or fast as cars.

In any case, these moments define the difference between cyclists and pedestrians.

I feel that with riding a bike, it’s really while you are riding that makes you feel good, not so much afterwards. Not like doing exercise where (in most cases) you only do it for the results and don’t enjoy it while you’re in the middle of it. Although you don’t seem to feel as good after the ride as you do while you’re in the middle of it, it does still resonate a sense of happiness for the rest of the day. It may just be that it’s a sunny day today, but I swear that I still feel more cheerful than I normally do on a sunny day. It may be due to the fact that I feel like I’ve actually done something, like some exercise. I may feel the same when I walk, but sometimes walking feels more like a necessity, and in all honesty also like a waste of time when you just want to get somewhere (I’ve had this experience in Dunedin when I walked to work or my sister’s place). 

There’s a difference in riding a bike and driving a car (obviously). But when you pedal on a bicycle it feels like you’re doing work, yet at the same time you’re not stuck in some enclosed space travelling from A to B. You connect with the surroundings around you and experience the city along the way. In a car, for the most part you are stuck in traffic, or at least between other cars; you’re essentially moving only one foot for the brake/acceleration, and you’re only going from A to B. 

It’s been about 2 or three hours after my cycling session today so I hope my thoughts aren’t too assumptuous haha

As an end note, I was riding the foldable bike. It has no gears and smaller wheels which equals more pedaling. The speed I could travel at was limited and I would like to have a bike with bigger wheels. The frame is also quite heavy, which makes me realise how “important” it is to have a lighter bike! It’s not too bad when you’re riding it, but to lug it around with you (especially if you’re to put it folded up in a vehicle) can be a pain if it’s heavy.

Introducing My Bicycle

I figured that I should first introduce my bike before I post up where I’ve been travelling… So here it is! Tada…

It’s a foldable bike from home. It’s been sitting in the garage folded up at my parents’ place for an odd twenty years or so (yes, that bike is older than me!) And since it was what I could fit in the car at the time, that’s the one I brought up (we have another mid-sized one with bigger wheels and five gears, but it was too small for me though it was too big to fit in the available car).

It basically folds up on itself, hence why the wheels are so small. Zooming in on the handle part, you can see how they fold down first. That little black handle at the back is the pivot point of the… arm? Shaft? (I gotta get into the bike component names):

Obviously, and ingeniously, the handle is designed to fold down at an angle in order to allow them to align parallel to the wheels (excuse all the dirt and dust in these photos! Really need to polish that bike up! The speckled rust is also surface stuff so it’s not really eroding anything).

Coming down to the middle section of the bike, we see the mechanism that allows it to fold up on itself. The silver metal part toward the bottom is the trap that locks the bike:

You have to push the flat metal part down in order to unlock it, after which the flat bit pops up:

The bicycle half folded:

There’s no lock to keep the bicycle in this folded position. But there’s a handy little part of the frame that acts as a handle for you to carry the bike. Unfortunately, as the age of this thing is older than me, it is quite heavy.. And it does take a bit longer to compact and unfold than just a few quick clicks.

And… here’s the bike folded! I couldn’t bother enough to lower the seat, nor the handles, but they do go right down, so you get the idea! It’s free-standing on flat ground:

As the final image, this is a demonstration of how I recorded my next few posts: with my iPod! I don’t have a GoPro so just started with this to see how it turns out… And I didn’t want my GoPro-lessness to delay me from starting to cycle!

First Post!

So i decided to make a simple cycling blog for the year - to document all my instances of bike-riding and how i found it.

I attempted to go cycling this morning - but it took me about an hour to unfold my bike (photos will be up soon!) and figure out how to strap my ipod to the bike (so i could avoid having to invest in a GoPro with all those accessories as a poor student…) and by the time i was ready to go physically, I freaked myself out by imagining the kinds of roads i’d have to ride on in order to get to the amazingly pleasant One Tree Hill area that i discovered the other day.

I live in Mount Eden, which is not a bad place in Auckland at all - but when you consider the significance of the roads there in terms of traffic (both Mount Eden and Balmoral being main roads) it gets kinda daunting imagining the kind of traffic you’d be riding alongside. This was about ten (or eleven by the time i was ready) in the morning so there was significantly less traffic. But i was still scared, having not have ridden a bike on Auckland streets before (this is excluding the time i went cycling on a rental bike in Mission Bay with a few friends and lost my toenail because i was wearing jandals..). And i imagined the hill i had to tackle on the way back home. 

My current bike is gearless, and i didn’t like the idea of working up a sweat if i was going to uni later that day.

Excuses, excuses.

So i guess this is still an experience of a beginner biker in Auckland. This is what (potentially) anyone would go through when they’re just starting out.. And this is the kind of thing i would need to address in order to get more people into cycling in this crazy city.